The Goodbye Girl

Sarina loves to go bye bye. It is her fav thing right after eating. In fact the first thing in the morning she wants to eat and then she starts her campaign to go bye bye. This involves getting her shoes and insisting on putting them on. Then she grabs some toy bag, slings it over her shoulder and waves bye bye to all of us. She must come up to me 50 times to say "bye bye Mommy!" The quickest way for Ben to get her riled up is to tell her we are going bye bye. Oh. how I hate that. So since she loves to go bye bye you would think that once I got her in the car she would settle right into her seat but NO! She loves to stand on her seat and refuse to sit. How I hate this too. Nothing makes you feel more impotent that a child who will not get into their car seat. I cannot tell you how many store parking lots I have stood in with my arms crossed looking very angry because my child will not sit in her seat. Arghhhhhh...it drives me mad. Sometimes I can tickle her until she sits but other times she is too stubborn and I take her out of the car and tell her she can't go bye bye unless she sits. That usually works. Wrestling her into her seat does not work very well. The girl is built like a line backer. No one is taking her down.

She is my little adventure girl. She climbs up to the top of all play sets. Goes down the highest slide and attempts to climb all ladders. She loves to stand on the top of something and proclaim loudly "Watch out! Fall!" The girl has no fear. She wants to ride the big kid bikes and scooters. She loves to go fast and yells "GO! GO!" from the bike trailer as we speed along.

She is also a little stinker and has learned how to annoy her brother by putting her foot on his car seat when we are driving. How he hates that. He yells and pinches her toes (because she has of course taken her shoes off) while she refuses to move her foot. She does screech loudly in protest but by golly she is not moving her foot off his seat.

She also knows she can get Mommy's attention by either standing on the drawer handle to the stove or hanging from the refrigerator door. She likes to do this when I am cooking dinner. If I refuse to give her attention she runs and hits her brother. I then give her a time out on the stairs. She finds this game highly amusing.

The screeching continues from her. I've found that I have to just ignore her. I think she entertains herself by screeching. Most of the time the screeching is limited to meal times. However, if she eats breakfast on the floor with Ben picnic style she doesn't screech. Still doesn't the child have to learn at some point to sit at the table and eat? Perhaps they will teach that in kindergarten. I certainly hope so or she'll be deeply embarrassed by high school, especially at prom.